The European Innovation Council pilot Business Acceleration Services and Bpifrance – EuroQuity organised the first EIC Investor Day of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak the physical event was rendered into an all-digital event with separate ePitching-sessions.
The amount of interest, activity, and funding in Deep Technologies is undergoing an explosion that is as broad as it is deep. In this light, the EIC and Bpifrance brought together 19 highly innovative EIC-beneficiaries for this EIC Investor Day.
The physical event, originally planned for 10 March 2020 in Paris, France, was transformed into ePitching-sessions (spread out over three different days) in which the SMEs got the opportunity to pitch in front of 40 to 50 different investors at a time. In total more than a 100 investors attended the three respective different sessions and had the opportunity to listen and ask in-depth questions to the EIC-innovators attending.
Christian Dubarry, Head of European Affairs at Bpifrance, the co-organiser of the EIC Investor Day:
"Bpifrance is very happy to support the deployment of the European Innovation Council among French deeptech as well as providing its online matchmaking platform EuroQuity to connect EIC's companies of excellence with European investors."
Celine Saint Olive Baque, CEO from NORAKER, was one of the EIC-beneficiaries attending the online Investor Day. On the reason why she applied for this specific Investor Day she commented:
"NORAKER managed to launch several products and start good commercialization. Our aim is now to expand the product range and increase greatly the manufacturing capability: this is covered by the EIC grant. The commercialization expansion needs a new round of investment, this is why I applied for Investor Day."
Celine attended several physical EIC-events before, but the online aspect was new for her as well:
"I got quite a lot of interesting questions at the end of the pitch. But when it’s online, you can’t say if your answer convinced the audience! I already have one follow up, so I’m confident."
Marcel van der Heijden, partner at Speedinvest, was one of the investors attending. He commented that he was looking for companies with an entrepreneurial and highly ambitious mindset and ideally with a good mix of demonstrable technical and business skills or experience.
"While unfortunate that the event was cancelled, the e-pitching sessions were actually a very efficienct way to learn about a couple of interesting new companies and potential investment opportunities".He continued : "The quality of the companies that presented themselves in the e-pitching sessions was good. We are currently evaluating some companies that are funded by the EIC and as a firm are also supporting the EIC and part of its ecosysem."
Are you looking for opportunities to connect with some of the largest investors in Europe? Throughout April and May there are several ePitching sessions with investors planned, including a dedicated COVID-19 session.
The next physical event will be the EIC Investor Day with Euronext in Dublin, Ireland in autumn 2020. Keep a close eye on our events calendar and apply today for a chance to take your business to the next level.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.